The Competitive Edge: Vanguard Renewables

Q: What was the reason for founding your organization – what was the open niche you saw that could be addressed with a new product or service? What was the problem, or gap, or opportunity?

Vanguard Renewables’ leadership saw an opportunity to help the American farmer to improve manure and nutrient management and to provide farms with a new, diversified income stream. They also recognized the crisis of food waste in the U.S. and the need for food manufacturers and food users to have a destination to divert that food waste away from landfills in order to comply with state and municipal organics to landfill bans. The company began by addressing the opportunity to recycle food waste and waste from farms into clean, renewable energy through co-digestion. Now the company has expanded to offering a manure-only anaerobic digestion program as part of a $200 million strategic alliance with Dominion Energy. Vanguard Renewables also has a multi-year strategic alliance with Dairy Farmers of America to bring the benefits of anaerobic digestion to farms across the U.S.

Q: Tell us about your organization. What do you do?

Vanguard Renewables is the U.S. leader in farm-based anaerobic digestion. We have a multi-year strategic alliance with Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the largest dairy cooperative in the U.S. with more than 14,000 dairy-farmer members across 48 states and operate anaerobic digesters throughout the Northeast with projects in development nationwide.

Based in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Vanguard’s is placing Farm Powered anaerobic digesters on farms across the U.S. Vanguard Renewables won the 2019 American Biogas Council Up-and-Coming Project Award for its anaerobic digester facility in Salisbury, VT and the 2019 ABC Longevity Award for its Rutland, MA anaerobic digester facility. Vanguard’s Hadley, MA anaerobic digester project won 2016 ABC Project of the Year. Vanguard Renewables’ leadership in on-farm co-digestion of food waste and farm waste to renewable energy won the company 2018 Organics Recycler of the Year honors from the National Waste & Recycling Assoc.

Q: What stage of development are you?  Choose one:

Commercial stage – have mature products or services on the market.

Q: What do your technologies, products or services do and accomplish – how does it (they) work, who is it (they) aimed for – tell us anything you think is relevant to describing its (their) features.

Vanguard Renewables Organics Co-digestion Program: Using Farm Powered anaerobic digestion, the Vanguard Renewables Organics Co-Digestion Program is a farm-based Organics to Energy opportunity that offers farmers relief from rising energy costs and manure disposal challenges and provides food manufacturers, food retailers, businesses, and institutions an organics recycling solution that complies with waste bans and helps save the environment.

Vanguard Renewables Ag Manure-only Anaerobic Digester Program: Vanguard Renewables Ag develops and operates Farm Powered manure-only anaerobic digestion facilities on U.S. dairy farms that improve manure and nutrient management, sequester methane to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and produce renewable natural gas (RNG). Vanguard Renewables Ag has a $200 million strategic partnership with Dominion Energy to convert methane from U.S. dairy farms into RNG. Vanguard will design, develop, and operate the manure-only anaerobic digesters.

Q: Competitively, what gives your technology, product or service set an edge in cost or performance, sustainability, or any other aspect, that makes it stand out from the crowd, In short, what makes it transformative?

Vanguard Renewables has a multi-year strategic partnership with Dairy Farmers of America to bring anaerobic digestion to farms across the United States. We also have a $200 million strategic partnership with Dominion Energy to make the benefits of manure-only anaerobic digestion available to farms across America and deliver clean, renewable energy to millions of U.S. consumers. The partnership is the largest waste to energy program of its kind in the U.S. Projects are under development in Georgia, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah with additional projects planned nationwide. Vanguard Renewables Ag designs, develops, and operates the projects. Dominion Energy owns the projects and markets the renewable natural gas (RNG) to Dominion Energy customers.

Q: What are the 3 top milestones you have accomplished in the past 3 years?

1. Vanguard Renewables developed and operates five farm-based anaerobic digester projects in MA and has projects under development in VT, NY, CO, NM, UT, GA, and NV.
2. We have a multi-year strategic alliance with Dairy Farmers of America to bring the benefits of anaerobic digestion to farms across the U.S.
3. Vanguard Renewables has a $200 million strategic partnership with Dominion Energy.

Q: What are the 3 top milestones you will accomplish in the next 3 years?

1. Vanguard Renewables Ag will develop and begin operation of multiple Farm Powered manure-only anaerobic digestion facilities nationwide.
2. Vanguard Renewables will develop and operate several new Farm Powered co-digestion facilities in the Northeast.
3. Vanguard Renewables Organics will begin operation of organics depackaging facilities to support the pre-processing of unused and expired food to make it available for recycling through the Company’s Farm Powered co-digestion facilities.

Q. Where can I learn more about Vanguard Renewables?

Click here to visit Vanguard Renewables’s website.